how much charcoal??


 
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Rick Moore

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From my recent questions on overnight smoking, I guess you could probably tell I was going to try it soon - well I did, I am...er...whatever - it is still cooking now!

I put 4 boston butts on last night at 10:00 pm - I'm looking to try and have them done by about 2:00 pm - and boy am I hungry! I just flipped them about a half hour ago so they are skin side down now. I checked the temp at that point and they were right about 175 - hoping that the next two hours or so will put me up near 190.

I do have a question about typical charcoal usage. I started up the WSM using the Minion method - I guess I used about 15# of the 20# bag. After manipulating the vents until about 10:00 am today, I finally added some charcoal to try and keep the heat up. And I added the rest of the bag when I flipped the butts. So now I have used up my 20# bag - and I think I have plenty in there - I didn't want to have to add more later so there is a good bed in there now. But, compared with previous smokes, this seems like a lot of charcoal! How much do you typically use for an overnight smoke?
 
Rick,

I just did 2 boston butts on Thursday night, total weight 14.1 pounds. I used a full charcoal chamber which is a little more than two full chimneys, so a little more than 12lbs; about 20 lit coals on top of that; and I added a half chimney in the morning after about 13 hours cooking, so another 3lbs. So total about 15-16lbs.

It was cold here too. About 29 that night and a little wind.
 
[qb]It was cold here too. About 29 that night and a little wind. [/qb]

Cold isn't all that much of a problem, but that wind'll get you every time! Looks like 12 lbs of charcoal isn't going to carry me through two racks of spares. Trying to keep the temp at 225 has been a real effort.

Guess I'll be building that windbreak real soon now!
 
After checking my meat temp again around 2:30, I found it hadn't moved from 170 and the WSM was now down around 210 - even though I had a nice bed of coals in there. Upon further inspection, I don't think I was getting very good inflow of air through the vents - using 20# of charcoal filled the ash chamber almost completely. I removed the mid section and top of the WSM and emptied the ash into my burn barrel. I just checked the smoker temp and it is up around 260 now - about where I want it for the final stretch to 190 internal temp.
 
Rick....

I cooked several pork butts last week...to be used for a fundraiser. They cooked up pretty quick...about 15 hours. I filled my charcoal ring to just overflowing...about 3/4 of a bag of Kingsford(the 24 lb.er). My vent temps got a little high on me overnight....260?. That caused me to burn more charcoal than I normally do. But I have never, ever had to add charcoal to a cook....of course I have lots of practice as well!

The amount of charcoal I used on this cook has, in the past, in summer, given me 22 hour cooks. So, it is very hard to give advice as to amounts of charcoal because there are so many variables...temp, wind, meat load, etc.

Just take detailed mental or written notes and soon you will get a good feel for it. I have cooked so many ribs that I can now pretty much measure out the exact amount I need for a cook....nothing leftover. Unless the weather changes! LOL
 
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